Loved Ones
by PolandSpringz
Summary: Yakumo has just passed. A one-shot involving the way those left behind in his storm comfort one another.


When he found her, she was collapsed by the stark white hospital bedside. Her hands were fisted against the neatly, immaculately tucked sides of the blankets, pulling them loose like the man on the bed had done to her life, or so she had claimed. Many people were in the room, crowding the bedside, all of which Yotaro knew. However, when he stepped in, the sea parted, and they all became a blur. He strode forward, mouth gaping as Eisuke's hand fell away from his shoulder. His sandals clacked against the tiled floor, and it seemed to shatter the silence in the room.

Yotaro stopped behind his wife, staring down at the sleeping form of the man, almost as pale as the sheets beneath him. He looked so worn, so tired, so unlike himself. Staring past Konatsu's red head, he saw an imposter, his eyes wide as he took in the husk of the man that did not even appear to be his master.

"Shissou…" He whispered, reaching out to brush the man's hand. Another one came up to slap him away. Frozen in shock, his eyes instead slid over to meet Konatsu's hidden ones. Their hands stayed hovering in the air, his drawn back from impact, she with it surged forward, barely brushing his skin as it shook from the adrenaline. If one stood from the doorway, you could see the one on the bed sitting directly in between the gap between their wrists, an I.V. tube running through one of them.

"It's…It's not fair…I didn't get to have my revenge." She began to mumble, recoiling slightly. No one else moved. She turned back towards the bed, folding her hands in her lap, "I said I would kill you for what you did, you said you would make me your apprentice, and after ignoring me for years, too!" Her voice was so violent, she punctuated the last word with two fists punching the surface of the bed, just next to the man's hip. Yotaro did not stop her, but when he saw her shoulders begin to shake after a moment of silence, he moved forward.

"Sis…" He gingerly laid a hand on the center of her back, kneeling down beside her as they both stared at the lifelessness before them.

"It's not fair to me! You selfish old man! You took everything from me! My mother, my father, my home, my childhood, my rakugo-! Now…Now you're trying to deprive not just me but Shinnosuke and Yota and everyone here in this room of their happiness! I can't believe you!"

"Sis…" Yota bowed his head, rubbing circles a little harder against her back. She was still rambling, "Sis...Please… _Stop…"_ His last word cracked as he slipped away from her, curling in on himself as she dissolved into a mess of sobs. Everyone looked away, feeling their own hearts clawing at their chests and throats to emerge. Each cry was a brutal, real one, no trace of any of Yotaro's normal immature whines and pleadings hidden inside. His spine rounded, his chest laid against his knees and thighs, and the man shook with loud, angry cries that resonated in the whole room. Konatsu fell silent this time, staring at a metal bed leg while her husband cried. She kept one hand pressed against her stomach.

As the minutes passed, the others filtered out. Mangetsu quietly and quickly ushered everyone away, motioning them towards the hall. Eisuke hesitated, but was eventually dragged away. Left alone in the room, was the father, the daughter, and besides Yotaro, their seemed to be a Shinigami milling about the air.

"Jii-chan…?" The two kneeling figures shot their heads up at the sound of the small voice, both whipping around the face the door. Shinnosuke stood, still wearing his school uniform, face looking both knowing and confused as he held onto Matsuda's hand. The older man seemed to be having a hard time, but he held onto the boy's hand, perhaps it was his lifeline.

"Oh, Shinnosuke-!" Konatsu opened her arms wide and the boy rushed forward, burying his head against his mother's neck. She rocked the child softly as Yotaro looked to Matsuda. He was standing still in the doorway, leaning against the frame for support. Softly, he stood.

"I'll get you a chair."

"Oka-san! Jii-chan…Jii-chan's dead, isn't he?" Shinnosuke whimpered, and Konatsu pulled back, smoothing the boy's hair down as she smiled at him with such brokenness and warmth.

"Shinnosuke, Jii-chan went to go join your real grandfather and grandmother up in heaven." The boy seemed unconvinced as he sniffled loudly, "They've been waiting a long time to hear his rakugo again."

"But it's not fair!" The boy cried out, flailing his arms as tears streaked his face. He looked towards his grandfather on the bed, his words growing more incoherent as he turned into a bigger blubbering mess. A folding chair creaked as Yotaro motioned for Matsuda to sit. "Jii-chan was going to take me out to the festival next weekend! He told me he would take me to the bathhouse again, and that we could go to the new theater to hear Daddy's rakugo when it was built!"

Yotaro stifled a choked noise and went next to his son.

"Shinnosuke, Shissou had to leave. He was very sick."

"But it's not fair! Right, Oka-san?" Konatsu was silent for a moment, before breathing out. She looked her son dead in the eyes.

"It's not about whether it's fair or not. It's how things are, Shinnosuke. But, Jii-chan lived a very long life, and a very happy one too."

"Jii-chan never seemed to be happy." The two adults stilled.

"Shinnosuke, your grandfather was very happy in life, but he went through a lot. He raised me with Matsuda-san, he worked day in and day out perfecting rakugo, and he loved listening to you sing the songs from the stories."

The black haired boy turned and stared at the dead man on the bed. Matsuda was staring without word at the man's face, no emotion crossing it as he struggled to comprehend everything he was feeling.

"…Was Jii-chan happy when he died?" The boy whispered, reaching out to link his fingers with the cold, wrinkled ones. No one intercepted him, "He's been asleep since the day Daddy did rakugo on the radio…Was he in pain?"

"The last thing Shissou remembers is probably being surrounded by everyone doing what he loved."

"What do you mean?"

"He asked you to throw the cherry blossoms, right?" Konatsu kissed her son's temple, "You were singing that song that Daddy was doing in the story. He smiled."

"He doesn't do that often." Yotaro gave a small laugh.

"He heard Daddy's rakugo show, something he helped make and I'm sure he was very proud to hear his apprentice doing so well."

"What about you, Oka-san?"

"I…" Konatsu fumbled for words for a second, trying to remember what she had been doing at that time. After Yakumo had started gasping and went still that day, her memories of what she had been feeling had been overshadowed by the chaos, images of her grabbing the phone, yelling in a panic for an ambulance, thinking about how this was getting to be too common of an occurrence to be healthy, and the way she had to hold Shinnosuke as he watched his grandfather be taken away again.

"I was always stubborn, always getting in his way, always messing up his life." She began, "Yet, he still took care of me, still fed me, made sure I went to school, bought me things I didn't want, even if he acted like he didn't care, he did. I still got mad at him though, upset when he refused to let me learn rakugo. But, I know he didn't actually want me to not do it, he liked my rakugo. He just was scared to give it away to someone connected with Miyo- I mean, Grandma." Tears welled up in her eyes, "So, I think, he decided it was time to go after I told him everything. He never held me during childhood, but, the funny thing is, he's held me so much as an adult. I've become so much more of a crybaby. I think he likes to see me cry. That sadist."

" _Konatsu!"_ Yotaro stressed as he looked at Shinnosuke, but he said no more when he saw his wife's eyes.

"So…when Jii-chan decided to go away, I was crying. And I think that made him happy, because the only time we ever seem to understand each other was when I was crying about something. He knew that. I guess..." She leaned into the hug her husband was leading for her and her son, "I guess he felt that I loved him then. So, it was his time to go." Her voice cracked with her dry laugh, "He knew if he stayed around longer, I'd just get angry at him again."

There was another long batch of silence, the two parents watching as their son turned over Yakumo's hand in his own, playing with the limb as he let the words sink in. Finally, he loosened his grip, holding it only by the fingers and looked at his father's eyes.

"Okay." Shinnosuke confessed.

Yotaro gently took the hand from his son, and pressed his lips to the skin lightly before handing it to Konatsu.

"Say goodbye to Shissou." He said, and Konatsu gave her son the hand once more. He cupped it with his own small ones, and then lifted it his lips as well, and gently kissed it before laying it on the bed.

"Bye-Bye Jii-chan."

The three of them shut their eyes and prayed next to the bed as the nurses milled in and out, some offering comfort, others merely casting sorrowful glances as they began to remove the wires and tubes from the man's body. Matsuda sat slumped over in the chair, staring down at the man, and it wasn't until much later when they were asked to leave so the funeral parlor could begin the embalming did they realize it.

Matsuda had passed away too.


End file.
